Confundus Charm

"[...] each of the guards gave a little start as the spells hit them. The guard was confused. He stared down at the thin, golden Probe and then at his companion, who said in a slightly dazed voice, 'Yeah, you've just checked them, Marius."

The Confundus Charm[2] (Confundo[1]) is a charm which causes confusion in a person[1] or bewitches an object.[2] It appears that there are varying degrees of confusion caused by the spell, from simply tricking a person or thing about a specific incident[3] to confusing a person to the point at which they endanger themselves.[4]

Contents

Casting

The spell seems to be rather difficult to cast, as Severus Snape, a very powerful wizard who could flawlessly perform Nonverbal spellcasting and Wandless spells, had such trouble with it that he had to "frown in concentration". To cast it, one must point their wand directly at the person or thing that must be confused and incant, "Confundo". If one is casting the charm on multiple targets, they must point their wand at each individual target in turn and incant once for every individual target.

Effects

Although the spell carries no light or sound, one can detect if another person has been Confunded (someone who has had this spell cast on them has been "Confunded") only immediately after the spell has been cast; the person will shudder when the spell hits them. It will cause any of varying degrees of confusion, from a simple trick[3] to making a person believe that they have come up with a complex plan when said plan was given to them by the caster.[5] It can also be used on inanimate objects that have a level of sentience, as Barty Crouch Jr. did with the Goblet of Fire, though this was noted to be a difficult task, as the Goblet itself was a powerful magical artefact.[2]

Behind the scenes

ProfessorSeverus Snape repeatedly insisted that Sirius Black had cursedHarry Potter and Hermione Granger with this spell; however, this was false, as Black was actually telling the truth. This, however, could merely have been a cover-up to attempt to protect Harry due to his lasting love for his mother, and the reason he did the same for Hermione and Ron may have been would seem odd if only Harry was supposedly confunded when all three of them attacked him.

Ronald Weasley used this spell to trick his Driving Examiner into letting him pass his driving test. This clearly constitutes a breach of the International Statute of Secrecy, but it is unknown if Ron faced any repercussions about it